Military Moms who homeschool outside the U.S....any advice, suggestions, etc.

[Kfamily]

My dh just recently joined the Army and yes, this wasn't an easy decision for our family considering his age, but we've weathered a bit of it so far. He is in AIT right now and we've recently joined him here in Ft. Gordon. He has just received his orders for when he has finished school (probably around Dec.) and they are for Japan...Okinawa to be exact. This will be for 3 years and we are going with him, of course. My world is a bit upside down right now...:lol:...but we hope to stay positive and make the best of this. We fully intend to continue homeschooling (and this will include high school for my older dd) and I would love any advice or suggestions any of you who have been through this could offer me. I'll even happily take just some words of encouragement.:001_smile:

 

Thanks so much!!

[Mrs Mungo]

We started out homeschooling in Germany. :) There are a lot of homeschoolers in the military. You generally find decent support groups for field trips and such.

[Mom in High Heels]

We started out homeschooling in Germany. :) There are a lot of homeschoolers in the military. You generally find decent support groups for field trips and such.

 

What she said, exactly. We're in Germany now and have been hsing for 3 years (about to start 4). You will fall under the SOFA agreement with your host country, so even places where hsing is illegal (like here in Germany) you an still hs. In Germany we are not required to do anything as far as informing the school system or testing or having a portfolio review. It's quite nice actually.

There is a yahoo group for Okinawa hsers. You can find it here. I don't know that they are incredibly active, but they might be. I'm sure if you join the yahoo group, someone there will be able to give you information on what is required of you there.

 

Absolutely stay positive. That is the most proactive thing you can do for yourself and your children. We've had loads of friends who lived in Japan and they all loved it. Some of them like it more than Germany. I'm sure your family will have a wonderful experience as long as you keep an open mind and remember that things WILL be different (you're going to another country after all), but different doesn't equal bad. There will be things you won't be able to get and places you won't be able to go (I miss you Target!), but the experience you get, the places you get to visit and the the things you'll get to see will far outweigh what you're "used to." Think how much history is in Japan! That's one of the reasons we love living in Germany (we've been here 3 times now). We get to see and experience so much that the average tourist would never get. Don't be afraid to leave post. Get out as much as possible and enjoy it. There are so many people here who never leave base and are miserable their entire tour. :confused: I just shake my head at them as we hop on a train to Paris or a plane to London. Their loss! People spend thousands and thousands of dollars to visit foreign countries for a week or two at most, and we get to live there on the gov't dollar. I'm not going to look that gift horse in the mouth. :D

Good luck to you! I'm sure you guys will have a wonderful tour.

[Kfamily]

Aww, thank you both so much...this really lifts my spirits!:001_smile:

Thanks Mom in High Heels for the link to the yahoo group. I'll definitely check into that.

 

One of my main questions right now is this one:

 

We're homeschooling here in GA until we leave in Dec. or so, but once we are in Japan do I register with a school board for our new location or is this something I do with the schools at the base? I need to find spend some time reading the site for the base about the schools and education in that area, I guess.

 

Thank you both!

[Kfamily]

Oops, sorry...one more question. How do you handle book orders? I've looked at Kolbe Academy, for example, to see how much shipping costs will be since we will be using a lot of their books for high school. It was quite high as I expected, but dh and I can't really afford to stock up now and we're worried about adding even more weight to our low amount of alloted weight (which we already go over...two kids and lots of books already). We've considered having books shipped to my parents and then have them ship to us, but I haven't looked at this to see how that would add up.

 

Thanks again!

Edited July 10, 2011 by Kfamily

[PentecostalMom]

We schooled in Germany as well, it's not a big deal. Pp's are right about SOFA. Everywhere is different. Under SOFa (Status of Forces Agreement) you are protected and well within your rights. Our base asked us to fill out a form with the liason to protect us in case anyone asked questions about kids being outside playing at 10am (or whatever the case may be). I would keep doing what you are doing at Ft. Gordon, leave it until you arrive at your next duty station and then change it. Again, like a pp said, you should be able to find a local hs group and someone can tell you what to do there. BTW, where are you going? I have some friends there! :)

[Kfamily]

Thanks so much! We'll be in Okinawa. I've never been out of the US, so this will be quite an experience. We're going to travel as much as we can!

[PentecostalMom]

Forgot about book orders. You will have an American overseas address, commonly known as APO or FPO. The majority of places will ship there, some even free. Oh, and I see you are going to Okinawa. I am jealous!! I loved hsing overseas. We traveled all over Europe and my son was able to participate in international sports competitions. Dh is now a DOD civilian, after being injured during his last Iraq deployment, and we still get to move but not so often. Hoping for a move soon. I am DONE with where we are! Enjoy it!

[Mary in VA]

It's been over 14 years since we homeschooled overseas, so I'm not much help. My dh was stationed on Okinawa before we were married and I visited-beautiful!

 

You might want to pm Laura in VA, she is/or was (not sure if she is still there) on Okinawa. I'm sure she'd be glad to give you info. Tell her Mary in VA sent you :001_smile: We went to the same church when she was here.

 

Mary

[Kfamily]

Thanks Mary, I'll send a pm to Laura in VA.

 

You ladies are wonderful...it really helps so much!:001_smile:

[RoundAbout]

We lived in Okinawa from 2005-2008. My son was only a baby there so I wasn't tied in to the homeschool community but I know there were a TON of them. The library on Camp Foster also had frequent special events just for homeschoolers. You will have no problem getting the support you need or finding other homeschooling families. Good luck. Okinawa is beautiful and it will be a great experience for your kids!

[Renthead Mommy]

We just came back from Okinawa two years ago and were there for two years. (K and 1st grade). As far as homeschooling is concerned in the military, you are required to follow the laws/answer to the state you are in. Overseas you aren't in a state, so you don't have anyone to answer to.

 

You can use the schools for what you want. We used the school library. My son did 'specials'. Which meant he went in every day for either gym, art, music, culture and there was a fifth. We only lived 5 house down from the school so it was easy. If I'd had more kids, had to drive, or even if it snowed a lot there, I probably wouldn't have bothered, but it was great for him, especially as an only. But you can sign them up for other things, you just have to talk to them.

 

You can use the library at both Kadena, AFB and Foster Marine base, plus the other marine bases I believe will do an on island inter library loan. The Marine library will do Marine base (stateside) interlibrary loan, but it takes a long time.

 

You'll get a US mailing address. It's a postal box, but you mail things regular there. Takes a little longer and you can only do USPS. If you need to order things that will only deliever UPS or something, you can get an address from a stateside company. The order arrives UPS at the mail box company, and then they ship it to you via USPS. I think it's called something like apobox.com. I can't remember but I can find out if somebody else doesn't know.

 

Right after I left they built a new BX on Kadena and it has a Books a Million in it. You can get free shipping from Books a Million through aafes.com.

 

One of the best things we did in the very beginning was take a lot of tours. We didn't have any ideas of where to go or what to do, so we started taking the tours through the community center travel agencies. (We used them for local tours and for our China tour.) But it's nice when you are new. You don't have to deal with maps, driving, parking or figuring out what it is you want to see once you get there.

 

Best tour is Zamami Island. Beautiful! Most incredible snorkling I've ever done. My son was a brand new 5 and he even enjoyed it. If you want more info on that with little kids pm me.

 

PM if you have any more questions.

[Renthead Mommy]

Oh- sports are done through the youth center, not tied to the schools. At least on Kadena.

 

But be sure to check the community centers and the USO's not only for tours, but things like music lessons, japanese lesson, karate, drumming, and Kumon. Often it's a lot cheaper than it would be stateside. I paid about 50% less a month for Kumon there, on base then I would here in the states. The Kadena USO even had a small movie theater that you could rent out (some years $20, some years free- depends on the budget I guess) and it even had a moive popcorn machine.

[tntgoodwin]

I lived three years on Okinawa when I was a kid.

 

My parents are there now (my dad for the 3rd time).

 

They have Amazon Prime and get free shipping for things they order from Amazon.

[Mom in High Heels]

Everyone has pretty much covered it, but AFAIK, you don't need to really do anything once you arrive (at least we don't in Germany). I'm sure the people on the Okinawa board will be able to tell you, but if not, just contact the SLO (School Liaison Officer) and s/he will be able to tell you what (if anything) you need to do. The military library system is pretty awesome. I know in Japan you will have fewer libraries than we do here in Europe, but if there is a book you need in the system on any of the bases, you can put in a request and they will have it shipped to your base library for you to check out. I LOVE this. It has saved me a fortune in books. If they don't have the exact one I'm looking for, there is usually another one similar that they do have.

As far as shipping, you will get an APO/FPO address that is just like a stateside address. For us (Europe) our mail actually goes to NY (or NJ) and the Army picks it up there and brings it over to our mail room. For Japan, I think it goes to CA and the Army picks it up there. In your address, your "city" will be APO (Army Post Office) and your "state" will be "AA" (Army Asia). Most companies will ship to APO's at no extra cost, but some will not, even if they ship via USPS, no matter how many times you explain that your address is actually in the US. Grrrrr! For those shippers and companies that only ship ground (UPS, FedEx, etc), you can sign up at shipitapo.com for a "stateside" address. The shipment will go there, they will accept it, fill out a customs form and send it on to your APO. The cost is based on the size of the box. I've used them for many items that even Amazon won't ship to an APO (especially baby items or health care items).

[Kfamily]

Thank you all so much. There has been so much helpful information here and such positive comments...thank you! My dh read through this last night and suggested we print it. I have subscribed to it as well.